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Depression of the energy gap at a surface in 3He-B; the evidence from thermal boundary conductance

Research output: Contribution to Journal/MagazineLetterpeer-review

Published
<mark>Journal publication date</mark>20/06/1986
<mark>Journal</mark>Journal of Physics C: Solid State Physics
Issue number17
Volume19
Number of pages6
Pages (from-to)L351-L356
Publication StatusPublished
<mark>Original language</mark>English

Abstract

A simple expression for the heat flux between sintered silver powder and 3He-B is derived. The heat flux in the superfluid state is expressed in terms of that in the normal state, without the precise mechanism of heat transfer needing to be specified. A comparison with recent measurements suggests that the energy gap involved is a factor of 0.65 of the bulk value. This implies that the gap is depressed near a boundary and that processes occurring close to the boundary dominate the thermal exchange mechanism.